KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Exterminators began sweeping a Kansas City neighborhood infested with rats after one of the rodents crawled into a baby's crib and severely disfigured the girl's face.

Authorities said the girl's parents put her in a crib next to their bed early Sunday and awoke a few hours later, when a heart and breathing monitor alarm went off. The 4-week-old baby, which had been born prematurely, was lying in a pool of blood with her nose and part of her upper lip chewed off.

The parents found rat feces in the crib. Police believe milk or formula that had leaked onto the baby attracted the rodent.

The pathetic cesspool, formerly known as Kansas City, MO (once a shining star of the home of the Pony Express, home to Walt Disney and Joan Crawford)has been as much of a Socialism Home on the Muddy Mo as is NO LA.

Way back yonder while I was in high school, I happened to see a painting of a baby lying face down in a crib, its arm extended through the bars of the crib (this was before bumper pads) and its hand missing with blood dripping from the stump. (It was an amateur sentivity-raising painting.)In the background was a large rat. I have never been able to get that image out of my head and this just brings it back vividly, only worse. I've never even seen a sewer rat in real life. This is the stuff of nightmares. Should the parents have known rats were around?

Kansas City has so very many people getting public assistance in almost everything that their citizens, ala NOLA, seem to be completely unable to do anything without "assistance" from some social service agency. They will wait for a "neighborhood clean up freebie" to pick up litter in their yards, neighborhoods, mow their own lawns or landlords/Housing Authority to exterminate rodents and other vermin from their homes or apartments.

They are unable to put out trash without government granted trash cans/trash bags and wait for City Sanitation to come through neighborhoods 6 months after an ice storm to pick up guttering strewn all over their lawns.

I can state this from first hand knowledge as I live 5 minutes from the State Line between MO and KS. When it snows, KS salts/sands and plows their streets. Driving east into MO the story is entirely different, they wait for a thaw to melt the snow telling everyone that "their salt/sand supplies were in limited supply based upon unusually heavy snows, etc." What makes it even tougher to take, the City of Kansas City, MO has an "earnings tax" that they put on everyone who works in the city "to cover the maintenance of city services" necessary for the extra citizens' needs.

Yes, this is indeed a tragedy, but this story sounds like one that might have been written in the early 1900s, as though there are no advances in dealing with rodents roaming in neighborhoods. One just might expect this to happen in the summer when garbage is left lying around on city streets attracting rodents but we have had a particularly cold, snowy winter and many former slums of public housing have been torn down and new housing erected but unfortunately, the reason the former dwellings were in such a condition, was the results of the people living there.

Side note, I grew up in what is now some of the worst "inner city poverty area" and it breaks my heart to ever drive into the area where I used to live. We were a working class neighborhood, not at all wealthy but we mowed our own lawns, painted our own homes, picked up our own trash and exterminated any rodents found anywhere!!!

"I find it hard to believe that the baby wasn't screaming in pain as the rat attacked her."

The baby was on a heart & lung monitor.

I presume (from experience) that the baby was premature and too weak to scream at any volume.

I would also presume that the parents were physically and mentally exhausted from caring for a premature infant (feedings every hour or so; depends) that you could shoot a gun off in the room and they would sleep through it.

Last winter we had a family of rats move into our basement.....Keep in mind that our finished basement is about 2000sq ft with numerous ducts, drop ceiling, conduit runs and hollow walls.

We had a terrible time getting rid of them. We first tried humane traps but quickly moved to poison and snap traps....They are incredibly bright animals for their size and it took us two weeks to get them all. We actually had them invade the main house from their basement "base" and leave their little droppings in the Kitchen and a chewed door edge in a failed attempt to get into the pantry.

You have to assume that they had full run of the house at that point while we were asleep. We had the kids close their doors at night to their rooms. Very Creepy....

Our home is in a very upscale area of North Atlanta, not the projects.

19
posted on 02/28/2007 9:40:02 AM PST
by nevergore
(?It could be that the purpose of my life is simply to serve as a warning to others.?)

When I grew up, even though Kansas City was considered "the big city" to people who lived in say Wichita, St. Joseph, Topeka, KS, or other smaller towns but we never felt that it was a "big city" as we were located in neighborhoods where we all walked to school and rode the bus to "Downtown" to shop and always had a "small neighborhood" feel.

Actually the home of the Pony Express is St. Joseph, Disney was born at Lamar and Joan Crawford in Texas.

If Crawford was proud of living and going to school in Missouri, I never heard of it.

I remember as a small child, mother getting mad at dad for taking the "short" way through colored town. I also remember seeing the big stately homes along Paseo Blvd being trashed out. My oldest sibling graduated from Paseo Highschool and it was long after that they tore the old one down and built a new one. Not too many years past that they had to repeat the process.

I left in 78 and you couldn't pay me enough to go back and live there.

23
posted on 02/28/2007 9:47:53 AM PST
by swmobuffalo
(The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.)

About 5 years ago I spent four months in KC consulting for Sprint. I have to say I really enjoyed the city - it grew on me. I stayed down by CC Plaza, and enjoyed the area, strolling through Westport (used to get a great latte at the Broadway Cafe which I understand is still there). Some fun evenings at some joints over in OP.

The sushi restaurant in the Crown mall was excellent, and I'm from the NY area where there's one on every corner. They had a talented chef and the place was a favorite for athletes when the Chiefs or Royals were playing. Kristi Yamaguchi the ice skater was dining one night at the next table from me. Then there was a night I got food poisoning ordering a bouilliabase at the Casino -- bad idea ordering shellfish at a casino bar 1,000 miles from an ocean.

Some good memories there, and wonderful people. Sad to read your story about how much has declined, though I didn't visit any of the troubled sections.

Agreed. I guess this is for my own selfish comfort. I want to think there were some warning signs which might have prevented the tragedy, whether the parents might have known about them or not. There is something very discomforting about a tragedy that happens "out of the blue" as another poster said. Years ago I read the book, Helter Skelter, about the Manson "Family" and what disturbed me most was the randomness of the choice of victims. I like to fool myself that I can avoid most tragedies in my own life if I am attentive to warning signs or obvious risks. (Yes, I know that is a fools' errand, but I try to imagine I can prevent sorrows in most cases.) I don't mean to impugn the parents, just what are the signs of rat infestation? Or are there none?

A very large RAT chewed his way thru the dryer duct vent. Before we found where he was entering the house, we found large rat droppings along the baseboards and even going up the stairs. We sleep with our bedroom door closed, but the RAT managed to slip under the closed door..We found droppings in our bedroom. It was horrifying.

We bought a Rat poison stick at the local feed store, and the rat ate it, and when he went outside to die.

We have become Cat lovers since that incident. Just last night, our mighty hunter bagged another one..OUTSIDE.

So, they are saying that the baby was in a crib, next to their bed and they didn't hear the baby crying? What, were they wearing ear plugs? They either weren't home or were watching tv in a distant room, ignoring the monitor and the baby's cries.

The pathetic cesspool, formerly known as Kansas City, MO (once a shining star of the home of the Pony Express, home to Walt Disney and Joan Crawford)has been as much of a Socialism Home on the Muddy Mo as is NO LA.

I take it you haven't been to KC. FYI: Walt Disney is from Marceline, MO. Kansas City is 90 miles from Marceline.

Well, the Alexander Majors Home, 81st and State Line, Kansas City, was a co-founder of Pony Express, and it was there that ponies grazed being readied for riders, who picked them up there.

I am and Interior Designer, who researched the history of Alexander Majors, as I was chosen to do the main room in his home during the Designer's Showhouse in the '80s. Rides were also run out from St. Joseph but many, began exactly in the home and business of Alexander Majors.

Disney was a classmate of my mother in Kansas City, MO at Central High School. Of course I didn't identify the city of his birth just the one where he grew up and began his early career. As to Crawford, she also attended school for a number of years and my mother was a friend of her aunt, in Kansas City, MO.

Small dogs like rat terriers can do em in. The dogs do sometimes have the unfortunate habit of chewing and clawing at furniture, doors and walls to get at their prey. Cats are the best because they have the instincts and patience that is needed to be still and wait for the right time.

We have lived and again live at the edges of wooded areas in a city residential area. Rats and mice as well as racoons have a tendency to come in when winter approaches. One good cat can keep the vermin at bay. Haven't had a problem in years.

37
posted on 02/28/2007 11:44:44 AM PST
by RJS1950
(The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)

In my town in Indiana someone killed a cat that was living around some grain silo. The people where understandably very upset because the cat was put out there as a mouser and protected the grain from mice and rats. It made me angry because it was just such plain mean thing to do.

39
posted on 02/28/2007 2:16:56 PM PST
by boop
(Now Greg, you know I don't like that WORD!)

actually,rats will not attack unless they feel they are in danger,they are not horrible monsters. the article states that it was suspected that milk had dripped onto the baby's lips and that is what spurred the rat on. the rat wasn't attacking,it was trying to get the milk off the baby and probably got a little too overzealous and started chewing. It happens easily,with Domestic as well as wild rats. I would know,i've been bitten many times on the nose and lips by my rats from where they're jsut trying to get a little cheese or milk off.

The rats that I observed near the seawall were truly awe-inspiring (if that sort of thing inspires you). They were at least as large as my VERY large cat, but good old Mittens did 'em in anyway.

We should have had a rat problem but thanks to the cat (who was born in the wild, BTW) we never did. Mittens had a litter once, and taught all her kittens to hunt. They all grew up to be excellent ratters, and in fact, I now own one of her decendents, who keeps our house free of vermin.

Regards,

PS: If it interests anyone, I have found that the female cats are particularly good at this job. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has made this same observation, as well as hearing any theories as to why this might be.

I would think that female cats being good ratters gas to do withg the instinct to protect their young. Especially wild-born cats that have been wild-born for generations, teaching the kittens to hunt has porbably been passed down for many generations.

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